We've discussed the Redfly Mobile Companion here before (a quick hands-on and a quicker commentary), but now we've had it here at WMExperts HQ for a week and are ready to render a verdict. That verdict: pretty darn good but not perfect.

First, a refresher: what is the Redfly? Like the maligned Foleo, the Redfy is called a “mobile companion,” which is shorthand for “intended to be used with a smartphone.” Unlike the Foleo, however, the Redfly is “dumber” yet therefore a smarter concept. What the Redfly does is connect to your Windows Mobile phone over USB or Bluetooth and “trick” it into believe it has a large, 800x480 screen and a near full-sized keyboard instead of a tiny 320x240 screen and a chicklet keyboard. So the Redfly itself stores no data and has no processing power, it all stays on the smartphone.

So although the Redfly itself doesn't have any RAM or processor to speak of, it's actually an incredibly smart concept because there is no syncing and no danger that if the Redfly gets lost or stolen the same thing will happen to your data. Also smart: Windows Mobile (for the most part) scales quite well to a larger screen. The knock on Windows Mobile has often been that it has too many “Desktop Metaphor User Interface” elements, but on a Redfly Windows Mobile sort of becomes a desktop OS, so it works.

Read on for the full gallery and review!

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So this Redfly thing made the internet rounds yesterday and we didn't post it because, well, we can't post everything. If you missed it, it's a “Smartphone Companion” that's designed to give you a full keyboard and a (relatively) expansive screen to work with when you're on the go. All your data lives on the smartphone. In shorts, it's darn close to filling the curious absence left in the wake of the Foleo cancellation.

Like we said, we weren't going to comment on it, but TreoCentral just weighed in on it, and that got us to thinking: It looks like the Redfly gets right what the Foleo got wrong in every aspect but one - price. What the Redfly appears to have gotten right is that the way to quickly construct a “mobile companion” is to make it just a “dummy terminal” to your smartphone. A glance at what little information is available seems to imply (though we're not sure!) that the Redfly is meant to work directly with Windows Mobile and to give WM a larger resolution (as in - hey, Windows Mobile, you know how you think you're working on a 240x320 device. Ignore that, we're bigger now).

IF that's how it works, then that's smart. It eliminates the need for complex synchronization software. However, if that's in fact how it works, then why on earth is it priced at $399 (or perhaps 499?)? Gah! Anyhow, like the Foleo before it, we want this. Should be available in March.

The REDFLY Mobile Companion is a sleek clamshell design that includes an 8“ display, a full function keyboard, and a touchpad mouse. Measuring just 1x6x9 inches and only 2 pounds, the REDFLY Mobile Companion offers over 8 hours of battery life and boots instantly! It also adds three new features - instant VGA output, access to USB flash drives, and the ability to charge your smartphone via USB.
REDFLY is very unique - it changes the resolution of your smartphone display so that applications, web sites, email, and attachments all have more room to play!

Read: treocentral.com >> Stories >> Commentary >> Redfly Mobile Companion Similar to Palm Foleo

Update: GerardoDada is on exactly the same page: a dumb terminal to your smartphone is the right way to go. We still wish it wasn't so darn expensive.

Here's me over at TreoCentral, reporting on Palm's big news yesterday afternoon:

Colligan states that Palm wants to focus their development efforts on the Linux Smartphone Platform, though he did write that Palm still plans on developing the a "Foleo II" and releasing it sometime in the future -- based on the new "unified platform."

Read: treocentral.com >> Stories >> Business >> Foleo Cancelled!

It looks like the overnights are in and the results are good for Palm. Sure, it's a black eye, but a black eye is better than walking around with your pants down. Reading over the reactions, I'd say it's about 10 "good move, Palm" to 1 "aww, bummer." Note that I've yet to come across a single "Palm, you idiots, don't cancel this!" reaction.

Even to the bitter end, I gave the Foleo the benefit of the doubt; which is to say "I seriously doubt the Foleo will work, but I kinda hope I'm wrong."

More after the break

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It looks like a little mix-up with Palm's Press Release RSS Feed let the news slip a little early - the mystery product that Palm's been hard at work at is a "thin client" of a sort - a device that hooks up to your smartphone and act like a mini-laptop. I'll be putting up more details at our sister site TreoCentral as more details come in.

It'll run some version of Palm's next-gen Linux-based operating system and sync auto-magically with your smartphone. It's not the magical stand-alone device Mike Overbo and I were hoping for, but signs are pointing to it being pretty darn close.

I'm posting this info here at WMExperts for a couple of reasons. The main one is that Palm is surely going to make this compatible with the Windows Mobile versions of their Treos - and I strongly suspect that means it should be just as compatible with any other Windows Mobile device. Why would Palm limit their market to just Treos when it would take virtually no work at all to make it compatible with the many Windows Mobile phones out there?

According to a RSS news feed from Palm, their mystery "3rd category" device is a compact smartphone companion product named Foleo that lets you view and edit emails using a large screen and fullsize keyboard

Read: treocentral.com >> Stories >> Hardware >> Palm's Foleo a "smartphone companion product"?